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Do you need a CAREER HEALTH CHECK?
January 2, 2008

Just as it is important for us to routinely check our eyes, cholesterol and blood pressure for a clean bill of health, it is important to conduct regular career health checks. Career health checks can assess whether our career is on-track. It can also position us for a healthy future and assess whether there is anything we need to develop.

Follow these four steps to assess your career health:

Career Health Check #1 - Work enjoyment

Our first career health check is to assess whether we are enjoying the work we do. If so, we can move to the second question. If not, we need to identify the kind of things that we would enjoy doing before proceeding to the next step.

Career Health Check #2 - Work challenge

Our second career health check is to assess whether the work we do is sufficiently challenging, without being overwhelmingly so. If it is sufficiently challenging, we can move on to the next step. If not, we need to identify what else we would like to include or exclude to make our work sufficiently challenging. Then, we can move on to the third career health check.

Career Health Check #3 - Knowledge, skills and abilities analysis

We are then ready to consider whether any of our own knowledge, skills and abilities (KSA) need updating or refining. We need to assess whether there are gaps in our knowledge. We also need to assess whether there are any missing skills and abilities that would be useful for our career progression. If we find a need to develop our KSAs in some area or another, we need to create a plan to develop them before moving on to the final career health check.

Career Health Check #5 - Career progression pathways

Once we know what we want, the type of job and ourselves, we are in a position to plot our career. It is often useful to plot alternate pathways, or backup pathways, bearing in mind the kinds of things we enjoy and find challenging. Moreover, by plotting several pathways, we have alternatives to draw upon if one does not work out, or if we change our mind. So spend a few minutes considering your alternate career pathways. It may also be useful to discuss your ideas with a friend, family member or one of the consultants at Eye Care Recruitment.

At the end of the day, you will have a healthy career that will be both enjoyable and challenging. Here's looking forward to a healthy career!

A quote to remember:

‘Feed your mind with great thoughts.  Belief in great things makes for greatness.' (Epiphany)